Strength in Every Smile

The Amazing Grace Project’s mission is to bring awareness, courage, and support to those affected by cleft lip and palate. Inspired by our Amazing Grace, we strive to fund life-changing surgeries, provide essential care and education, and show the world that there is strength in every smile.

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our story

1 in 700 babies in the US are born with Cleft Lip and/or Palate or a craniofacial difference. At Grace’s anatomy scan we learned we would be the 1 in 700. There was a wave of emotions and fear of the unknown, little did we know our beautiful girl would turn out to be the biggest blessing to our family that we could have ever hoped for. Since she was born Grace has had 5 medical procedures, 5 hospital stays, 2 feeding tubes, 2 cleft repair surgeries, ear tubes, lots of P.T., a new genetic diagnosis, ankle braces, lots of visits with her amazing medical team and most importantly LOTS of people who love her. Along the way, Grace has continued to show us the strength that she embodies in the form of her beautiful smile.

We are grateful to live in a country where we have extremely talented surgeons, doctors and state of the art technology that allowed us to learn about Grace’s diagnosis and will allow her to have the best care possible throughout her life. We have learned so much in the past year and a half about Cleft, but most importantly about the resilience and strength of our little girl. We are proud to be 1 in 700 and feel incredibly blessed that she is ours.

We want to honor Grace and all of those affected by Cleft, whether it be the individual or their families, by bringing awareness to the diagnosis and financial support to non-profits that care for those with Cleft and show the world that there is Strength in Every Smile, so The Amazing Grace Project is born.

spreading smiles Worldwide

The Amazing Grace Project is dedicated to raising awareness and support for children and families impacted by cleft lip and palate. We believe that through education and community engagement, we can provide essential aid.

Dr. Zarella, Grace’s incredible surgeon at Randall Children’s Hospital, also volunteers with Alliance for Smiles, a nonprofit that transforms the lives of children born with cleft lip and palate by providing free, comprehensive treatment and training local medical teams to offer sustainable, long-term care. He has been a true hero to Grace and an inspiration to our entire family. In honor of both him and our Amazing Grace, we proudly choose to support Alliance for Smiles.

The Amazing Grace Project partners with Alliance for Smiles by raising funds and donating them directly to their life-changing work. To date, our support has helped provide 12 free cleft repair surgeries for children in need. Every dollar we contribute brings hope, healing, and the confidence of a new smile to a child somewhere in the world.

Learn More About AfS

Our vision

Our flagship initiatives focus on education, community support, and fundraising efforts to change lives for those affected by cleft. Explore how we can make a significant impact together.

Awareness

Creating Understanding

We actively promote awareness about cleft lip and palate, working to reduce stigma and encourage community understanding through education, factual information and sharing Grace's story.

Fundraising Support

Support Essential Care

Our fundraising initiatives provide financial support to non-profits that provide free surgeries, education and medical care, enabling families to access vital healthcare services for their children.

We aim to empower our Amazing Grace through empowering others through the COURAGE it takes to be strong like Grace and to share Grace's story. Her unwavering courage has inspired us to encourage others.

The Power of Sharing

Courage

Upcoming Events

Our Blog

Welcome to the Amazing Grace Project 💛

Grace was born with Cleft Lip & Palate! Since she was born she’s had 5 medical procedures, 5 hospital stays, 2 feeding tubes, 2 cleft repair surgeries, ear tubes, lots of P.T., a new genetic diagnosis, ankle braces, lots of visits with her amazing medical team and most importantly LOTS of people who love her. Along the way, Grace has continued to show us the strength that she embodies in the form of her beautiful smile 😊 Grace is such a special blessing to our family (there’s no one who loves her more than her siblings), this is our way of sharing her strength & smile with the world! Our goal is to create something positive & empower Grace by empowering others through:
💛Courage: Sharing her unwavering courage
💛Awareness: Educating others about Cleft based on what we learn
💛Advocacy: Advocating for others with Cleft by supporting other non-profits who provide medical care to those effected by Cleft around the world
💛Support: Offering resources for families effected by Cleft

Follow along as we show the world there’s strength in every smile 💛

Let Grace be your inspiration to love yourself this week ✨💛 #amazinggrace

#cleftlipandpalate #cleftpalateawareness #cleftpalate #cleftstrong #cleftproud #cleftsmile #cleftlip #strengthineverysmile #amazinggraceproject #cleftawareness

Team Miles for Smiles, WE DID IT 💪🏼 we had the privilege of running 196 miles for the @htcrelay with some incredible friends and creating a memory we will never forget, all while raising enough money so that TWELVE children will receive FREE cleft repair surgery 💛

What a gift it is to be able to accomplish something like this. It was HOT, it was hard, but it was worth every bead of sweat. And we had a damn good time doing it! Thank you to everyone who supported us, donated to @allianceforsmilesinc 🫶🏼 and thank you to our team mates and friends who stepped up, stepped out of their comfort zone and signed up for something without knowing what we’d truly be in for 😂🥵 last but not least thank you to the ever amazing Dr. Zarella for inspiring us and not only changing Grace’s life but changing our life as well 🫶🏼 we will continue to honor Dr. Zarella and Grace by supporting the incredible @allianceforsmilesinc organization to provide free cleft treatment for as many children as we can.

Thank you for supporting by following along and Grace’s journey & don’t forget, there’s strength in every smile 🫶🏼

WE HAVE SURPASSED OUR $10,000 GOAL! 💛 Grace, Husten & Reagan say a massive thank you to everyone who has donated, shared and supported the Amazing Grace Project’s first fundraiser for @allianceforsmilesinc 🫶🏼 because of you, 11 Children will receive free Cleft Lip & Palate Repair!

Our fundraiser is not over! This weekend we will be completing the Hood to Coast relay in honor of Grace, Dr. Zarella & Alliance for Smiles! We will be raising money through the end of August, it’s not too late to make a difference! Remember, there is strength in every smile 💛 Link in bio

Amazing Grace is an Amazing running partner 😅 roughly 8 months ago we committed to running the Hood to Coast with some friends, our thought was, if Grace can make it through everything she has, we can run a silly relay race. Well we are a little over a week out to the Hood to Coast Relay, and it has become WAY more than a “silly relay race”! However our sentiment hasn’t changed, if Grace can do hard things, SO CAN WE!

We recruited some awesome friends to run with us under the team Miles for Smiles, in honor of Grace and her incredible plastic surgeon. We are raising money for Alliance for Smiles, a non profit where Grace’s plastic surgeon Dr. Zarella volunteers and performs surgery to those who need it most around the world. This is the start of Grace sharing her beautiful smile around the world with those who need it most🥰 We have almost reached our, $10,000 goal. If you feel called, please join us in supporting this incredible non profit, QR code to fundraiser in the slides above. Please also feel free to share and spread the word! 💛

Closing out Cleft & Craniofacial Awareness Month with a tribute to 18 Months of Amazing Grace 💛 swipe to see her amazing transformation ☝🏼🥹

1 in 700 children are born with cleft lip or palate. The diagnosis is so far beyond being a cosmetic facial difference. These children are faced with numerous obstacles from physical to nutritional and everything in between, while the journey is lifelong, they are without a doubt the most resilient, toughest and most beautiful blessings. I wish there were more resources around cleft highlighting the strength & resiliency as a reminder that these kiddos will be BETTER than okay.

I can’t imagine a world where Husten and I are not Grace’s parents. Our goal with The Amazing Grace project is to raise awareness, advocacy and support for all those affected by Cleft including friends and family because there is Strength in Every Smile 🫶🏼

Huge day for amazing Grace! Today we had an appt. with Grace’s pediatrician to see about starting the process of getting her G-tube removed, things went like we hoped and her pediatrician will be sending a letter of recommendation to the general surgeon to get the Gtube removed! 🤩

Many children born with Cleft ARE able to use a bottle for feeding, or some form of a specialty bottle but there are also several cases where the children are unable to form a suction because of the severity of their cleft. Grace’s cleft was too severe for her to ever form a suctions so, after A LOT of trial and error, she used an NG tube and then a G-tube as her primary source for nutrition for her first year of life. The news of her needing a Gtube felt really scary and permanent, but I am here to report, I am SO HAPPY she had it! It allowed her to get the nutrition to grow and develop and eventually have her cleft palate repair surgery, which then allowed her to form a suction and use the Dr. Browns special needs bottle. Grace is now almost 18 months old, she no longer uses her specialty bottles and hasn’t used her Gtube for 6 mos+

If you’re new to the cleft journey, there are so many bottles to try out. Your cleft team will know best but some great brands were Medela, Dr. Browns & Pigeon. You won’t know what your baby needs until they are here! And if a bottle doesn’t work out, an NG tube or Gtube are options as well. Just like any baby, fed is best 🫶🏼

#theamazinggraceproject #cleftpalate #cleftlip #cleftstrong #cleftproud #cleftawareness #cleftlipandpalate #strengthineverysmile #cleftcutie

July is Cleft & Craniofacial Awareness month! 1 in 700 babies in the US are born with Cleft Lip and/or Palate or a craniofacial difference. At Grace’s anatomy scan we learned we would be the 1 in 700. There was a wave of emotions and fear of the unknown, little did we know our beautiful girl would turn out to be the biggest blessing to our family that we could have ever hoped for. We are grateful to live in a country where we have extremely talented surgeons, doctors and state of the art technology that allowed us to learn about Grace’s diagnosis and will allow her to have the best care possible throughout her life. Husten and I have learned so much in the past year and a half about Cleft, but most importantly about the resilience and strength of our little girl. We are proud to be 1 in 700 and feel incredibly blessed that she is ours 🫶🏼

We want to honor Grace and all of those affected by Cleft, whether it be the individual or their families, by bringing awareness to the diagnosis and financial support to non-profits that care for those with Cleft, so The Amazing Grace Project is born 💛

#strengthineverysmile #theamazinggraceproject #amazinggracesmiles #cleftpalate #cleftpalateawareness #cleftlipandpalate #cleftlip #cleftcuties #cleftproud

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Strength in Every Smile

spreading smiles Worldwide